Strategic Assessment: Jedi Order (circa 3948-4952 RE)
Opening Notes Future history is an unstable thing, particularly given the plurality of futures represented on Earth. However, due to the Porter's favoring of a specific cluster of futures, an assessment of the major factions of the future Galaxy is required. The Jedi Order's history following 1,350 RE is largely unknown for a period of 3,600 years. The only known historical event during this unattested period is the reemergence of Jedi-Sith war in 3,948. The Sith were defeated, and the Jedi driven into hiding. Contemporaneously or as a result of the conflict, the Galactic Republic collapses and is reorganized. At some point between 3,948 and 4,947 RE, the Jedi Order returned to galactic prominence, and its alliance with the Republic. While they retain their internal hierarchy and believe that conflict is forced upon them,Network Log- Obi-Wan Kenobi (2017.11.05) there have been multiple self-descriptions of "keeping the peace for a thousand years", marking the period between the reestablishment of the Republic and its fall. Their reputation following their collapse was one of physical and military feats. This indicates an interventionist mindset that is at odds with much of known Jedi history. However, they were not subject to military training as of 4,947 RE.Network Log- Mitth'raw'nuruodo (2017.11.27) Either this was a lapse from a more militaristic era that preceded it, or Jedi acted as super-legal arbiters or justice working singly in small groups. This is not unknown to the Jedi Order, but is more consistently characteristic of Sith or Dark Jedi sects. Also of note is the Order's age of recruitment. This may be further reaction to the rise of Dark Jedi from their ranks, as was the original institution of restrictions on padawan training. The intended concept may be to utterly control the emotional development of the child. This is a miscalculation on their part, as I learned with Zhorrid. Timeline This represents the perspective of the Jedi on the events covered in the Timeline. Most of it has been culled from statements given by High Council member Obi-Wan Kenobi. The period from 4947-4952 RE has contemporary documentation among imPorts, beginning with Dooku and his renouncement of the Order, and ending in a Sith-orchestrated purge of the Jedi. Much of the information available pertains to the Clone Wars, and Jedi involvement therein. This is reproduced in brief in the Public Timeline. Further details on the Jedi Council's perspective have been publicly provided by one of its members, and are summarized here, with dates inferred based on previously gathered information. 4949 RE * Republic Senate debates Military Creation Act. ** Senator Padmé Amidala, a solid "No" vote, was targeted for assassination. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi captures an assassin, traces their employer to Kamino, a planet erased from the Jedi Archives. * The clone army is discovered on Kamino. Commissioned by a Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, without knowledge or consent of the Order.(Also responsible for removing Kamino from the Jedi Archives?) ** Assassin's employer identified: Jango Fett, template for the clone army.(And therefore template of imports Rex and TK-622. Related to imPort Boba Fett. Possible father?) Fett claimed to have been hired by "Tyranus". * *Battle of Geonosis ** Clone army deployed to rescue Jedi. * Republic learns that the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS) had manufactured a droid army. Accepts the clone army as fulfillment of the Military Creation Act. ** NOTE: Reported timeline does not square. The clones were deployed prior to the generally stated point at which the Republic sans Sheev Palpatine were informed of the CIS army's existence. Someone had to command them to do this, but no records specify who. This also implies the clones were fully armed, outfitted, and provided transport. Equipment procurement would have to be sourced on a galactic scale. I assume that this era's equivalent of the Republic Strategic Intelligence Service would have noticed this while drawing up their own assessments, but the Jedi evidently do not find this detail significant. It may be interesting to question imPort Rex regarding this subject, but only as an academic exercise. * Clone Wars begin * Jedi Order discovers that Tyranus is an alias for Dooku. This is not publicly revealed, and the clones are judged to be "loyal and trustworthy". ** NOTE: This is either impossibly naïve, or abdicating responsibility. Your enemy handed you an army, and you allege that you took no steps to ensure your own security against them. The arrogance involved in this decision is breathtaking. * A clone trooper kills a Jedi commander. The clone is identified by the Jedi Order as mentally unstable. ** Clone trooper Fives begins independent investigation. He discovers a compliance chip has been implanted into each of them. He attempts to share his findings and is similarly dismissed as mentally unstable. The chips are presented to the Jedi as an inhibitor to regulate clone behavior.^(Do they actually fulfill this purpose?) 4952 RE * Supreme Chancellor is captured by Separatists, likely during their assault on Coruscant. Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi lead response. ** Kenobi incapacitated. Count Dooku is killed by Anakin Skywalker. * Order 66 ** The compliance chips are presumably activated. ** Kenobi's troops turn on him. At this point, he realizes Sheev Palpatine was a Sith. *** NOTE: Presumably the rest of the High Council was similarly caught unawares. ** Kenobi and Grand Master Yoda survive the purge, as does then-padawan Kanan Jarrus. No other survivors were known to Kenobi. *** NOTE: Ahsoka Tano is also a documented survivor. Notable Differences Jedi also accepted Republic military rank during the Clone Wars, an extraordinary step which likely would not have been accepted by the Republic Ministry of Defense or the Jedi Council in 1,350 RE. Unlike previous Jedi Generals, these were not apostates from the Order and they did not lead an independent force. This may be due to the Republic military lacking a powerful constituency at the time: their soldiers were drawn from a clone army initiated as a secretly Sith-controlled eugenics program, provided to the Republic. The Jedi history of official disapproval of eugenics and sapient experimentation appears to not extend to this period, or they justified the transgression as a necessity of war. Notably, the Republic of this era seems primed to accept the clone army as a convenient tool, as were the Jedi. Perhaps the Republic prohibition on slavery had not been renewed following its reorganization, and the Jedi acclimated to this lifestyle. This stands in contrast to the Jedi and Republic contemporary to the Sith Empire, which made extensive use of Imperial slavery in their propaganda, both to harden public sentiment and present freed slaves as signs of victory. In their final years, the Jedi Order apparently considered it significant that they saw their battle-slaves as sapient individuals. This statement in itself is odd with regards to human slavery. Even under the Emperor's benighted Blood Purity doctrine, human slaves are considered candidates for elevation to citizenship, while aliens were not. Did the Jedi previously not own human slaves? Did they own aliens, or specific species? Did their traditions of asceticism kept them from personally owning fully organic slaves at all? One possible explanation is that they they may have owned droids or cognitively altered cyborgs, both of which have a history of restricted access to citizenship and personhood in both the Sith Empire and the Republic. Thus, their only experience with the institution of organic slavery would have been as 'enlightened' outsiders, possibly influenced by experiences in regions such as Hutt space. However, the legal status of aliens cannot be identified from present knowledge. The Jedi on Earth have been human. Exceptions may have occurred, as they did in the Sith Empire prior to my abolition of Blood Purity. The Republic of our time stood as something more approaching a true sentient milieu, but the same cannot be affirmatively said for the future. Palpatine certainly seems to have believed in Blood Purity, but it seems infeasible that the newly created Galactic Empire could have stripped citizenship from an empowered populous. However, If the Republic had adopted societal structures similar to the Sith Empire over the intervening history since my present date, then perhaps this explains how a Sith could easily take control: The Republic would require little modification to meet the average Sith's satisfaction, beyond the removal of Jedi. In brief: * Involvement in government and war are exercises in moral compromise for many philosophies, the Jedi among them. They gain power and sacrifice their ideals. * The Order may still have conceived of itself as holding an outsider identity via both their parallel leadership and some period of seclusion following the Jedi-Sith War of 3948. * However, the Order was heavily integrated into the Republic, to the point of holding military rank. * The Order seems to teach that their intervention is required to maintain the galactic status quo * The Order took explicit military roles